July 2010 Archives

Jul

Google Sends An FU To Pirates, Introduces A Centralized Android Market Licensing Service

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Apps/Games, News

Android Pirates

Have you ever seen one of those annoying comments on the Android Market promising the riches and all the Android apps in the world for a low-low monthly price of $10? Sites like that pirate paid games and apps off the Market and then distribute them illegally, pocketing all the revenue. That's modern day warez at its finest.

Whether it was because of Android's openness or Google's notoriously poor focus on the Market, no DRM or licensing protection was available in the SDK for developers to utilize; so unless you rolled your own licensing scheme from within the ...

Jul

Android 2.2 FroYo Ported To Motorola Milestone (Build FRF91) By dext3r

Posted by David Ruddock in Froyo 2.2, Milestone, Mods

ModMyMobile forum member dext3r has released a Milestone update image containing Android 2.2 FRF91, known as MotoFrenzy. Because of the Milestone’s still-locked status, it has been notoriously difficult to port updated versions of Android to. This should help to assuage fears that the Milestone was forever doomed to run Android 2.1.

Download Links:

MotoFrenzy v0.1a (Full image, needs to be flashed with OpenRecovery (ADB Recovery)
MotoFrenzy v0.1b (Incremental, link goes to post, download is at bottom of first post; you must register to download)

The only major issue with this image is a non-functional camera, which shouldn’t be too much ...

Jul

HTC-Branded Android Devices Wildfire, Desire, and The New Tianyi Headed To China On China Mobile, No Mention Of Google Or Android

Posted by David Ruddock in Desire (Bravo/BravoC), HTC, Tianyi, Wildfire (Buzz)

HTC issued a press release today announcing four HTC-branded phones (HTC phones were previously branded Dopod in China) are to be released in China in a deal with China Mobile and electronics retailer GOME Electrical Appliances (the largest electronics reseller in China). Three of those phones run Android. One, the Tianxi, looks to be a rebranded HD2 running Windows Mobile, which as we all know, can run Android.

Unfortunately, it appears removal of Google branding from Android devices (including the Market) in China will continue with these new phones. This is a requirement for Android phones running on China Mobile, ...

Jul

Interpad Android Tablet Details Emerge: Android Tablets Getting Serious

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Interpad

German company Interpad has released details on their website about their up-and-coming Android tablet, slated (get it?) to be released later this year… in Germany. The devices are more costly than the other Android tablets we’ve seen by this point, but you’re getting one hell of a nice device for your money:

Dual-Core nVidia Tegra @ 1 GHz
10.1” 1024x600 px screen
512 MB to 1 GB RAM (depending on model)
512 MB to 1 GB ROM, mSD support from 2 to 32 GB (depending on model)
Mini USB, mini HDMI, 3.5mm headphone jack
802.11 b/g
Bluetooth (depending on model)

...

Jul

RSS Gets Sexy: Pulse Comes To Android

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Applications, News

When Steve Jobs announced the iPad, he demoed Pulse – a super-slick RSS reader designed by some Stanford grads. Although Pulse had a minor hiccup (pulled from the App Store, then reinstated shortly thereafter), it became quite popular – today, the iPhone version has an average rating of 4.5/5 stars.

Rather than simply displaying RSS feeds as lines of text, Pulse grabs thumbnails for each, and lays them out in square boxes that are organized via source and scrollable. The app seems to be incredibly smooth and efficient – just check out the video:

Despite the graphic-heavy nature, scrolling seems ...

Jul

Samsung Brings High-End To The Small Screen - Galaxy Q Specs Leaked

Posted by Nate Kimmey in Galaxy Q, News, Samsung

Last Updated: May 3rd, 2011

Samsung is certainly on a roll with their Android devices – their Galaxy S and all of its variants have launched successfully all over the world, with more launches still to come. But that hasn’t stopped them from planning their next Android device, one that may attempt to sway Blackberry users to Android.

According to a spec sheet leaked by MobileCrunch, the Samsung Galaxy Q is a very high-end phone, with the small screen size of only 3.0” being the odd spec out. Combined with the listed “QWERTY Keypad,” it makes sense that this phone will take the same ...

Jul

Story Claiming Only 20% Of Android Users Would Buy Another Android Phone Is False: CNN Money Just Can’t Read

Posted by David Ruddock in News

Last week, CNN Money published an article claiming Android had an 80% customer turnover rate based on a survey by Yankee Group. Despite the fact that this number would mean Android users are more dissatisfied than users of any other smartphone OS, the story made the rounds.

CNN Money later came out and admitted they had made a rather large mistake. The statistic they quoted was the percentage of smartphone users who said “Android” in response to the question, “What operating system will your next smartphone run?” Clearly this 20% goes from being abominable to rather positive for Android, which ...

Jul

United States Library Of Congress: Jailbreaking/Unlocking/Rooting Your Phone Is A-OK With The Government - Here Are The Implications

Posted by David Ruddock in News

If you’ve cruised the blogosphere today, you’ve probably noticed a number of articles talking about the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), and the Library of Congress having decided to add a few exemptions to the sweeping piece of legislation’s authority. Why is this a big deal? And is it a big deal at all?

On the latter, in some ways yes, and I’ll explain why only some later. For the former, it signifies a change in attitude over what constitutes infringement of digital copyright for two major pieces of technology, one of which we’re interested in here at Android Police ...

Jul

[Deals] T-Mobile MyTouch 3G Now FREE ($0.00) With Upgrade Or New 2-Year Contract

Posted by David Ruddock in myTouch 3G (Magic), T-Mobile, Tips

This doesn’t need much explaining. If you start a new T-Mobile 2 year contract or upgrade and extend your current service contract, you can get the MyTouch 3G for nothing, nada, zilch. Got a frugal friend or family member looking for a cheap smartphone? Look no further. Just check out T-Mobile’s online store page.

...

Jul

Acer Stream Coming To eXpansys In The UK On August 2nd; Packing Android 2.1, 1GHz Processor, 3.7” AMOLED, HDMI And More For £400

Posted by David Ruddock in Liquid Stream

The Acer Stream is coming to the UK, and it’s coming soon. Acer’s newest and most powerful Android device to date will initially be available exclusively through eXpansys.com in the UK starting on August 2nd. £400 will get you the device, unlocked. This is your only purchase option, as no carrier subsidies have yet been announced. I will say it’s pretty robust on the spec-sheet. The Stream features:

A 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon Processor
3.7” WVGA AMOLED Display
512MB ROM / 512MB RAM
2GB Internal (Flash) Memory
MicroSD Card Slot
WiFi (presumably B/G/N), Bluetooth, and GPS
Mini HDMI-out
3.5mm Headphone Jack

...

Jul

HTC Confirms It Will No Longer Use AMOLED Displays For Desire, Nexus One—Switching to Sony SLCD's

Posted by David Ruddock in Desire (Bravo/BravoC), News, Nexus One (Passion)

HTC confirmed in a press release today that the Nexus One (which is still manufactured for and sold across Europe and Korea) and Desire will no longer be sporting AMOLED displays. Instead, HTC has opted to use Sony SLCDs. Their reasoning? The press release gives it to us from a nice, sugar-coated PR perspective:

HTC Introduces SLCD Display Technology To Its Portfolio
New Displays to be integrated into HTC Desire and Nexus One
Taoyuan, TAIWAN – July 26, 2010 – HTC Corporation, a global designer of smartphones, today introduced Super LCD display (SLCD) technology into a variety of HTC phones

...

Jul

Android Developers UI Design Tips Presentation Aims To Homogenize Android App Interfaces In The Style Of Twitter, Facebook, And Yelp

Posted by David Ruddock in Applications

Ever notice how Twitter, Facebook, and Yelp all use (nearly) the same start screen implementation?

Apparently this is no coincidence. A presentation given at an Android Developer conference is urging app developers to conform to this design when developing their own apps. Why? Consistency lends itself to usability.

Android has long been a victim of its own openness—many claim it is a “geek” or “technophile” operating system. This stigma can, in part, be traced to the fact that Android apps have not been held accountable to any but the most lax standards (Eg, doesn’t blow up your phone) ...

Jul

The Five Things Android Needs To Grow Up

Posted by Kenny Embry in Applications, Editorials, News

Android’s introduction in the marketplace hardly seems like it was less than two years ago. In that time we’ve gone from zero apps to a robust app market and enough unique handsets to give whiplash to every early adopter wanting to ride the bleeding edge.

With over 60 different phones, 70,000 apps in the marketplace, about 20 OS updates, and enough interest to keep dozens of full time blogs crammed with news, we can’t call Android a “baby” OS anymore, but we can’t call him mature, either. We’re in that limbo of adolescence where choices have long range repercussions that ...

Jul

PSX4Droid Brings PlayStation To Your Android Phone—Android Gaming Suddenly Sucks A Lot Less

Posted by David Ruddock in Applications, Games, News

ZodTTD and yongzh have released Android’s first PlayStation emulator application, now available in the Android Market for $6.99USD. Remember, that $6.99 does not get you any games or a working BIOS (required to run the emulator), you have to “legally” obtain these on your own time (please do not post links to ROMs or BIOS images in comments, they will be deleted).

But words don’t really do this justice, hit the jump for some sexy video:

Ridge Racer, Final Fantasy, Earthworm Jim, and Warcraft on Galaxy S

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UW7CxT0l20s&feature=player_embedded

Crash Bandicoot on Nexus One

Final Fantasy VII with Wiimote ...

Jul

How-To: Run Android On Your PC

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Mods, News

Chalk this one up as a novelty, because the usefulness is pretty low. HowToGeek (and by extension, an XDA forum member) have posted instructions for how to boot your PC into Android. The process isn’t too excruciatingly tricky if you’re willing to just burn the ISO to a CD, although if you opt to run Android from a USB key, you’re in for a slightly more involved process.

Once installed, things seem to work pretty normally – according to HTG, this includes cameras and Wi-Fi, depending on what you’re using. Also (and rather surprisingly), they had some minor issues with ...